Some weekends are better than others

Well, what a splendid weekend, weather was great, and we managed to achieve some jobs around the block too. Thursday evening and Friday, Connor, Ronan and I went up to Mum and Dad's so as to collect a 1.5m wingspan model aeroplane (my new toy :-). We had a pleasant trip, and the highlight had to be having fish and chips with the boys sitting on a grassy patch near Napier wharf watching some boys fishing (not ours). Saturday and Sunday saw us do a little bit of wiring in the extension, I started putting the data cable in, and digging down to the lid of the septic tank (not really a nice job). Whereas this morning, we moved meemee and PorkChop into the area beside the arena with lots of grass, and Connor and I spent some time in the workshop. He was making a plane, whilst I was starting on the CNC milling machine. We both made progress so that's pretty cool! Then this afternoon we mowed the lawn, and basically strolled around admiring our last 8 years of hardwork. Now to have tea, put the boys to bed, and then maybe play a board game with Steph, a very pleasant weekend.

Sunrise

Didn't realize Ronan was a cat or dog.

Building progress

Looking at the theatre from the south

My office window, and the ensuite (closest to the camera)

The master bedroom window, and walk-in-wardrobe window

Inside our bedroom, walk-in-wardrobe on left, ensuite on right

Wardrobe

Ensuite

Theatre across to office

Theatre from door

New door to a yet to be made deck and sitting area.

NightLapse

The reason for the apparent increase in speed of the stars later in the movie is because the exposure time of the photo became greater than that of the interval between shots...Very cool all the same

Wairarapa Sunset

Eeling

Another weekend, and it's been quite pleasant, Connor, Richard, Nuala and myself went out this afternoon for the Longbush Monster, this time using a trap we made. It came to within a few inches of the opening, but got scared and swam away, another time!  Also managed to get away for an overnight hunt in the Mangatoetoe valley, didn't spot anything, but saw sign, and had a good time all the same!
As for around Littlebush, since our bonfire is right beside where I intend to put the new plastic water tank, we decided to burn the pile down, so that we don't destroy the tank :-), so Saturday was spent feeding the fire.

Steph's been busy too

Whilst I've been in the kitchen with nasty chemicals and UV light, she's been in the lounge making these for Connor...he really likes dungarees.

This is her first attempt a clothes making since I've known her at least!!!!

Hectic Day

The first barrow going in

Quite a few barrows later

Me getting my hands dirty with the undergrounding of the power line

Admiring the slab

The Man from Council, He Say "YES"

Well, after a bit of rain, and what looked like a potential problem, the building inspector came around today, and signed off on the foundations, so tomorrow is
Concrete Day, how very exciting!

So far, over 1300 photos have been take of the build!

Photos

I think we might need to find the boys something to sit on

The finished intervalometer.

The weekend

As you might expect, the builders haven't done anything over the weekend, however, we have now got carpet and lino for the extension, we've picked http://www.carpetexpress.com/products/carpet/residential/Smartstrand/ingenious_flair.html in the color Key Largo, it's a very nice carpet, and whilst slightly expensive, it was on sale, so it brought it down to an affordable price.

Over the weekend, we've moved stock, harrowed paddocks, been down the range (Connor shot a rabbit target 2 at 50m by himself), and I've printed a few PCB's, they are starting to look a lot better!

Photos up later.

Day 4

No photos today, (well we have some, but they don't show that much progress), but we have plumbing now.

In other news, Steph and I went to a presentation about early childhood and brain development, very interesting stuff, and it was quite nice to have our main ideas about parenting validated
 1: Child needs parents around as much as possible (hence we've tried to have Steph and I around as much as possible) for the first 3 years
 2: TV doesn't cut it! The boys watch as little TV as possible
 3: Childcare isn't a substitute for parents (see 1)

There were a few things we both took away from the sessions (we went at different times of the day), and I had pizza.....never complain when I have free pizza...

Also, when we got home, our friend had a gilt with farrowing problems, so we went down and tried to help her farrow, but to no joy, the piglet is truely stuck, hopefully she would have passed it over night :-(

Day 3

Today we've got the footings dug, and the hardfill down.

Day 2

Pegging complete

Broken Dirt

Yes, after many many months, a digger turned up this morning, and has broken dirt!....I can almost smell the popcorn!

The Build Begins

So, we've been given a start date of the 12th, so we need to prep the area first. That was the plan for yesterday, but the weather bomb, and 14 hours without power put paid to anything interesting.  Today was better.
Even though it's a bit breezy, and a few showers this morning Steph got out and cleaned up the roses on the end of the house ready for removal, whilst I made up some more ammunition for my 22-250 with some new projectiles. I spent a nice morning down the range, and finally managed to get the rifle to group within 1 inch at 100m, and Steph had also sorted the magnolia and pear tree.

This afternoon we also cleaned up after the weather...so here are a few photos from the weekend (grr...you'll have to wait, the same technological issue I was having before is still plaguing me!)

My nicely prepped paddock, hoping to sow something in here next weekend!

The proof of concept on the left (done a couple of years ago), and today's v1 version!

Proof of concept, up close...The microprocessor is TOTAL overkill here

Todays version, a slightly more appropriate microprocessor, better power supply regulation too, and more features! (a remote control, and can do either 1 minute or 1 second intervals)

Apart from getting 2 pins on the micro confused (PCINT0 and INT0, easily done!), I also forgot to tie RESET to 5v, so the microprocessor never did anything, just sat there in reset all the time!. Hence a small hardware patch on the underside!

And here it is

Proof

Here is the little beasty, funny to think that the little chip has more processing power than most of the computers we had when we were young!

First PCB

After having the kit for many years, today I printed my first circuit board, measuring about 1" by 2.5", it contains a micro computer, and will control my camera so that I can do time lapse photography of the build that starts in a few days. Hopefully my PCB drills will arrive tomorrow and I can populate it.

Bloody Computers

Somehow, tech is ganging up on me, and keeps uploading broken photos. I'm had enough fighting it today, and will try to put the broken photos up again later :-(

Water play

 

 

Matthew's Birthday

 

 

 

Ronan's 2nd Birthday